Hi everyone,
This is our statement on the issues of needles in jails in
response to the HIV scare at MRRC, Australia, last week.
A HIV+ prisoner disclosed that he had just shared a needle with another six
prisoners, and within 2 days over a hundred prisoners had possibly been
infected.
Ms Noha Ramadan,
JA Coordinator
CLEAN NEEDLES FOR PRISONERS
Justice Action is concerned at reports of a delay between the disclosure of
needle sharing by a HIV positive prisoner and the notification of the HIV
Health Promotions Unit (HHPU) and notification to endangered prisoners. This
delay may have cost some of the lives the prisoner was seeking to save with
his selfless confession.
The lack of choice of medical services available to prisoners and their
continued denial of access to harm avoidance measures places a great
responsibility upon the DCS to ensure prompt and effective medical
treatment. The recent incident has demonstrated that Corrective Service
continue to neglect this basic duty of care.
Heroin addicts need to inject drugs about three times per day. Each worn and
pitted prison needle is used by many prisoners. There are serious doubts
about the recommended bleach sterilisation method, even if conditions in
NSW prisons allowed IV-using inmates to perform it regularly. It is clear
that the HHPU and all Metropolitan Reception and Remand Centre (MRRC)
prisoners needed to be notified as soon as the danger was known.
It is our understanding that the delay also resulted in the transfer of
possibly-exposed prisoners to other prisons, such as Parramatta Overflow
Remand Centre. Justice Action seeks assurances from the department that all
prisoners who may have been exposed to this outbreak have now been told of
the danger and that no prisoner will suffer penalties for confessing to
needle sharing.
The only difference between recent events in the MRRC and those which occur
every day in prisons throughout NSW is that in this case the perils became
impossible to deny or ignore. The Corrective Services' stance against
prison needle syringe programs not only threatens the health of all NSW
prisoners, drug using or not, but their families, prison staff and the rest
of the community. Prison officers are being placed at unreasonable risk by
their need to search for secreted needles, a fact attested to by the regular
needlestick injuries they suffer.
Justice Action calls on the Department of Corrective Services and
Corrections Health Services to immediately implement trial needle syringe
programs in NSW prisons and juvenile detention centres with the aim of
making them accessible to all prisoners and juvenile detainees as soon as
possible. Such programs in Swiss prisons have shown that they can
adequately address issues such as safe storage, use and disposal of needles
as well as gaining the enthusiastic approval of prisoners, health staff and
prison officers.
This is not an issue that will simply go away. Bloodborne diseases abound in
NSW prisons and many health and legal professionals believe that a class
action by infected ex-prisoners denied harm avoidance options is simply a
matter of time. We call on the current administration to take immediate
action rather than simply waiting until the steadily accumulating damage
these policies do to public health force belated measures to be undertaken.
Justice Action - Because the jails are the crime
19 Buckland St, Chippendale, NSW 2008.
ph: 9281 5100 Fax: 9281 5303
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website: www.justiceaction.org.au
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